


Bucky Barnes Is Done With Everyone's Bullshit

by periwinklepromise



Series: WinterIron Week 2019 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Getting Together, M/M, POV Bucky Barnes, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark Has A Heart, but in a vague sense, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 10:50:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19944964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/periwinklepromise/pseuds/periwinklepromise
Summary: Bucky had been out of it for a while, but once he started paying attention, he noticed most everyone talked shit about Tony.So he started shutting them up.





	Bucky Barnes Is Done With Everyone's Bullshit

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "You done yet?"

It had started long before Bucky had met Tony, before any of them had met Tony. But their team – if one could call them that – well, they carried on that tradition with vigor.

He hadn't noticed at first; he had had … other things on his mind. But when he found himself able to pay attention to anything beyond basic survival, he had noticed. And watched. And one emotion percolated in reaction – rage.

Tony provided for everything – lodging, food, all their specialized gear – and he never expected anything in return. And why should he expect it? No one had ever offered it before.

He'd learned that the first time he'd thanked Tony and he'd been waved off. Steve had assured him it was perfectly normal, that Tony wasn't very good at normal conversation. But it hadn't seemed like that to Bucky; he'd seen the reels, he knew Tony was a charmer.

But that was in public. In private, without all the cameras and reporters, Tony kept to himself. It took a while for him to figure out why.

It was his own fault.

Oh, he and Tony had the discussion – there were no hard feelings there. But the team had taken sides, and most of them had sided against Tony. For Bucky's sake, for a man they'd never met. 

In a war, you had to do things you didn't like. You had to learn to dehumanize the enemy, or you'd never be able to stop them. They'd all dehumanized Tony Stark, to protect themselves from what it meant to hurt him, and now that their civil war was over, they didn't know how to treat him like a human again.

So they didn't. If they remembered to speak to him at all, it was never civil, and certainly never respectful. They belittled his contributions, mocked his speculations, and did all they could to make him feel unwanted in his own home. So why would he want to spend time with any of them?

He wouldn't.

Bucky understood, maybe he could invite Tony to hang out with the team, but he wouldn't be welcome. Being nice to him alone wouldn't solve this. But Bucky wasn't the great thinker Tony was, or the great orator. So he kept it simple - “You done yet?”

And it worked for everything. Making fun of Tony's work or demanding more. Telling him to speak more or significantly less. His clothes, his company, everything was fair game to the team when they were in bad moods, and every single complaint could be cut off with a stern “You done yet?” followed by an angry look. And then his face would smooth into a nice smile as he offered an abrupt subject change. 

And he did that for a good couple weeks, until they started cutting themselves off when they tried to talk shit. And he kept up the glares for another couple weeks until they stopped trying to say that shit at all. 

Then he planned on actually talking to Tony for real, but well, Tony beat him to it.

“You done yet?”

Bucky looked up from his pizza, half still in the box. “Um. You can have some.”

“Not what I meant,” Tony said, but he sat down and took a piece anyways. “I meant, what's with the courtesy police? Half the team's going out of their way to be nice to me, and I would have suspected alternate universe replacements, but Sam said this was your doing.”

“Um. I guess.”

“So what's the deal?” Tony grumbled around his pizza.

“You deserve better.” It was that simple.

Tony froze, jaw hanging oddly. He swallowed with too much force, water at his eyes. “What?” he croaked.

“I said, you deserve better. So I made sure you got it.”

His face was almost back to its normal color, but his eyes were still bright with … something hesitant. “Why?”

Well, if they were going to have this conversation, he only wanted to have it once. So he heaved a sigh and admitted, “I like you.”

“What?”

Had he broken Tony? His responses were normally a bit longer than single syllables. “And I'd like to take you out to dinner tomorrow night. If you'll let me.”

Tony's lips smacked as he tried to find words. Was that a good sign or a very bad sign? He was about to take it all back and leave the room, but Tony blurted out, “Yes! Yes, I'd like that. Yes.”

Bucky beamed. “Okay. Um. Say, seven?”

“Seven dates? That's a little forward, but okay.”

Bucky rolled his eyes at the absurd joke and squeezed Tony's hand for a flash. “Seven o'clock. Meet you back here?”

“Where do you think you're going?” Tony nudged the pizza box at him. “You're not done yet.”


End file.
